If we have an extra hour we use it to reply emails, to do work stuff, to be there for somebody else… to worry because we are not living up to the crazy expectations we set for ourselves.

Well, that’s just BS and you know it. If you go to sleep one hour later that you normally do, just so you can finish that work project, than you might as well use that same hour the next day to do something for you, to nourish your body and mind.

I have a list here for you, with things you can do to show yourself some much needed love

1. Go for a walk by yourself

It can be at any time time of the day, 20 minutes, an hour, during your lunch time at work, whatever you can fit in your day.
Just go, wear something comfy, grab your headphones and walk your troubles away.

Walking alone is great, it can help you clear your mind and put things in perspective.
You could also grab your camera, just in case you get inspired, even if you’re walking by the same place you walk every single day, you’ll see that when you’re present, when you are living in the moment you start seeing things differently, maybe your just noticed that beautiful tree with those really big pink flowers!

2. Clean one space/room

Your closet, your desk, the kitchen, etc. Just one.We all do it, we all have that one space, or maybe more, that become catch-all places, and yes there’s that empty box of juice, those 3 glasses you used the
past 3 days, you have a pile of dirty laundry…

All those things can really bring us down and we know it. We claim to be too busy, we think oh well I’ll do the dishes tomorrow, and the next day you say the same, and so on, then you wanna pour yourself a glass of water and realize that all the dishes are dirty, and you feel guilty, and all kinds of negative thoughts start crossing your mind…why do we do that? Maybe today is the day we stop.Lighting up some candles, having your fave music in the background, opening up the windows and let the fresh air in can make cleaning-tery relaxing.

3. Have a pamper evening

If you don’t have a pamper routine this is the perfect time to create one, here are some things you can do:

Take a bath with extra bubbles, light up some candles, play some music or an audiobook

Do your nails

Make a delicious hot cup of chocolate… or have a glass of wine.

4. Cook yourself a fancy fancy meal

It’s time to put those pretty cook books you’ve been buying to use, browse around your fave foodie blog, pick a recipe that looks yummy and treat yourself!

5. Write on your journal

Write or doodle about how you feel at this very moment, good and bad emotions are valid.
write about how you want to feel tomorrow and the next days. You may want to start writing a to-do list but stop right there!

write about how YOU really wanna FEEL, instead of thinking you need to finish X or Y, try to think how doing that would make you feel, focus on that and write about it. It can be very descriptive or very abstract, but it would definitely make you feel like you’re listening to your soul and you’re taking care of it.

6. Read a book

If you are one of those people thinking “how in hell is X reading 30 books a year?” I’m with ya, sometimes you really wanna read a book, you buy it, get all excited and happy, read a couple of pages and… the book starts collecting dust because you always have a deadline to meet and reading is just not a priority.

If you are honest with yourself you know you waste time doing other things, so yeah you do have time to read, maybe you won’t read 20 pages today,
maybe you will read 5, but that’s fine, 5 pages a day is better than no pages at all.

7. Buy yourself something pretty

It can be a $2 nail polish in your fave color, it could be a $50 face cream

8. Make a “20 things I love about me” list

This might be harder than it seems, and if it is, this means you NEED to do it, show yourself some love!

9. Make a donation

You can make a donation to your fave charity, to support a creative project you believe in, to your local animal shelter.
If you can’t donate money, you can always donate time… or blood.
This is something you would do for somebody else, and even if it doesn’t look like it, this is actually another way of loving yourself too.

You are doing this with an open heart, you may not know the person who will benefit from it, but you are putting out there good and positive vibes, love and time which always comes back to you!

10. Schedule up some more of this!

You see how easy it is, just to let go and dedicate time for yourself?
I think all these things on the list are simple, don’t require expensive things and they make a huge difference in our mood, and overall health.
So now it;s time to schedule, how much do you need, 20 minutes, 1 hour, a whole day? Go grab a calendar, or your phone, go I’ll wait
here…got it? ok, schedule it, this simple thing will make it happen.Let me know if you like posts like this, I really hope you find here something that helps you realize you need to dedicate time for YOU!

Things that I loved in August till now are :

1. Drawing ink

As I was packing I found this old Staedtler drawing ink I hadn’t used in a long time, I grabbed a few brushes and I’ve been writing and drawing with it. For me it’s such a rough medium, I’m using it to practice hand lettering and to do warm up sketches.

I also find it’s a great medium for me, for those days I feel really stressed and I just need to doodle something to get it out… like art therapy or something. You can check on instagram to see a quick warm up portrait I posted on IG.

6. Rediscovering music

I’m one of those that need music or even noise at all times, so I have videos, audio books, podcast or whatever as background noise. So I was making new playlist and I found these songs I LOVED a long long time ago:
A) Tonic’s “If you could only see”
B) Matchbox Twenty’s “Unwell”
C) Sarah McLachlan’s “Fallen”

What about you?
Did you blog your faves of the month? If you did leave a comment, I’d love to check it out.

I’ll try to publish more outfit posts, and I want a lot of you to find something that will give you ideas to put outfits together with pieces you already have, or maybe buy one of pieces I’m suggesting.

Let me know if there’s something you want to see, maybe a style you wanna try?